Some threatfleet were passing by Nomad 2 to join the hacking party. Nothing big, but I wasn't aware they were allowed to do so.

Might have been Roaming Planetary Defenders, sometimes the AI spawns ships in that mode and they wander around a small cluster of planets, looking for trouble. They amuse me.

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AIP: 64 (floor 64)

AIP 64 at hour 9...

>>Fatal Error! Does not compute.

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So, not counting the auto-AIP or the nomads, that make a total of 12*20+10*5 = 240 + 50 = 290. My genetic AIP fear made my heart skip a beat. Weeeeel, we're on 7/7, nothing can go wrong... Think at all this HaP and Knowledge!

(this will lead me to crack open a DGLair; I hope I'll be geared enough for this, by the time).

I can't wait to see this.

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Time to update their data: 2 H/K, 12 Disassemblers (7 MkIII, 5 MkI; there must be others somewhere else), 21 Missile MkII (one of them must be a regular guard here) and 62 Riots.There is also 2 Ion Canons (1 MkI and 1 MkIII) and a Planetary Armor Inhibitor.

<wince> The PAI is just the icing on the pain-cake.

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Disapointed, SForces went away. Time to neuter the planet and claim it.

Might have been Roaming Planetary Defenders, sometimes the AI spawns ships in that mode and they wander around a small cluster of planets, looking for trouble. They amuse me.

Roaming Planetary Defenders? I never realized there were such behavior. So it's a sort of little local SForces (militia?) I wish it would be more visible. For instance, passive "asleep" defenders are gray and the F3 key show threat with a colored outline. Maybe I'll mantis "please make F3 show SForces" and "please make behavior outline default and not F3/debug only". I think it would be great if the player(s) can better identify states of encountered foes. Players would be unable to make a difference between SForces and moving threat without the Hunter goodies and the very recognizable Riot pack. I still have trouble identifying fleetships following SForce's Guardians/Riot.

Roaming Planetary Defenders? I never realized there were such behavior. So it's a sort of little local SForces (militia?) I wish it would be more visible. For instance, passive "asleep" defenders are gray and the F3 key show threat with a colored outline. Maybe I'll mantis "please make F3 show SForces" and "please make behavior outline default and not F3/debug only". I think it would be great if the player(s) can better identify states of encountered foes. Players would be unable to make a difference between SForces and moving threat without the Hunter goodies and the very recognizable Riot pack. I still have trouble identifying fleetships following SForce's Guardians/Riot.

A little more like patrolling guards in a stealth game -- they don't necessarily wander as an organized team like the SF does, since roaming defense is controlled at the invidual level from what I can tell so far. If you mouse over them it notes they're in roaming defense mode. Basically, the AI can use Ctrl+V too just like we can, including letting them wander around a small number of adjacent planets. Most of the time they only wader on a single planet, but rarely they will decide to guard a few -- seems like they don't cover more than 3-4 at the absolute most, and they *must* be adjacent to each other and AI-controlled.

For whatever reason, I saw this interplanetary roaming routinely on AS:I, but only a little bit on AS:II (I mistook them for SF as well when I first saw them, until I captured a CSG planet and they didn't come). The cluster of planets around Apophis had a little crew that liked to wander around it. I haven't looked at the code to get the details, but I have a hunch this behavior is more likely to be chosen on planets with capturables or AIP reducers. I also see it with starships more often. Makes doing the EMP/uncloaked Lightning combo trickier.

Their assignment isn't as rigid as the SF, they can drop in and out of the other main behaviors depending on what happens -- actually, most of the planet defense ships can, it's pretty cool. That's why when you go stir up a planet, only some of the annoyed defenders switch to Threat instead of all of them -- each ship gets to choose. Some go back to sleep, some may decide to start patrolling. I think patrollers can choose to settle back down, it's just hard to notice.

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Goal down? Who said 3 downloads? I said all cloaked downloads!

Oops, thought you'd grabbed the last one! Carry on, Agent!

Logged

Infiltrating hostile AI networks to rewrite reality.

[[Hacks available from this unit found on the AI War Modding subforum.]]

10:16:02Fire unlocked Youngling Shrikes. Ice unlocked MicroFighter. Looks like RNG feels very thematic, this game.I slightly redesigned my territory; Economic OCStation MkII has been unlocked for this. Now each border planet has a MkI Military OCS and all planet-cap turrets MkI, with, in front of the (only) hostile wormhole, under a MkI FField, 1 StealthTachyonBeam, 10 TractorBeams, and all lightning and flak turrets, then, ordered by range from the wromhole, all the needlers, laser, MLRS, missile, and snipers on the other side of the planet. Then one FField (MkI/II or hardened, depends) on the Military OCS. The nomads have all MkI turrets around the WJammer OCS, a FField and one fortress on the middle; the MkI Tachyon turrets are split (8 on each) and scattered around the OCS. All non-frontier planet has a MkII Eco OCS, one Stealth Tachyon Beam near the wormhole, all snipers and a MkI FField. If you take a close look at the galaxy map, you'll see that only Back has two hostile wormholes, but they are aligned, so there is no problem. MkII Eco OCS (only one isn't deployed yet) added some metal but more importantly a good chunk of energy.Fleet is slowly rebuilding; some turret moves have drained some metal. However, starships are not for today.DGLair is slowly building. Maybe it would be my next target, now that I'm a bit more comfortable.But some threatfleet need to be cleaned first.

10:24:21Fleet and starships rebuilt; only MkIV raiders need to be built, now. I'm left with about 250,000 Energy (I support an armored warhead and no metal converter).2,500 threat strength is spawning a warp relay (52%) on RingIV.Some 100~150 ships wave here and there...

10:28:2440 marauders spawn on RingIV during the threat cleaning.

11:00:00Rebuilding and cleaning hour. Maybe I shouldn't play while thinking at something else. I have too much metal; I triggered the building of my personal strategic reserve: the mercenary space dock has been ordered to loop through triangle ships plus the beam frigate when metal is above 3,000,000 (my maximum capacity is currently at 3,340,000; Eco MkII OCS have enhanced storage capacity).HaP: 70AIP: 185 (floor 89)Knowledge: 15,250Empire: 16 planets (nothing new)Unlocks: same, plus Economic OCStation MkII.AI unlocks: same, plus NYShrike (Fire) and MicroFighters (Ice).Plan is to get rid of the DGLair and continue the core diving.

11:02:42DGLair world now neutered. Lair cracked open. Picks are: Needler, Shield and Spider. A very brutal pick: the shield and spider should do a great job at holding my fleet and the needler is just the firepower to benefit from shield/spider impunity.11:03:40Dire Guardians were busted with "only" 250 casualties. The shield was distracted by my enclaves and let its mates naked; the spider wasn't as efficient at keeping me at bay because I started the fight at close range (by fear for a sniper pick, mostly).11:04:07Back is (rather) ashes now: threatfleet (leaded by a MkIV flagship) that wasn't displayed on my galaxy map minutes ago attacked it during the dire fight. A 400 ships reprisal wave is targeting it for withing 2 minutes and my main fleet is on the other side of RingI. Great. Fleet rebuilt at home is sent to protect Back's back.Oh, TeleLeeches are immune to snipers. Well, missile turrets MkI are added to every inner world as a standard measure.11:07:14Some threat backstabbed Nomad 4 but the fortress proved useful. Maybe Back deserve one.Anyway, Back is now clear and rebuilding.Well, now with the fortress on Back and the missile turrets on the five non-frontier worlds, I'm left with around 30,000 Energy.

11:09:49Fleet and defenses fully operational. Metal stashed. Thread below ridiculous threshold. Ready to work.I consider taking BridgeII-A. It would severely hinder AI's ability to navigate between RingII and RingIII, delaying threat backstabs and SForces interventions. Also, since I control BridgeII-B, it would put two of my worlds in the "intern" category. However, it will cost me 2 alarms and two more planets adjacent to my frontier to neuter, and there is only two late-game DGLair/hack combos on RingII and RingIII (SpacePlane and EyeBot).Result of considering: interesting, but not now (and maybe never).Immediate plan is to tachyon-carve a path for a stealth lab to scout ARS on RingV, while my main fleet will neuter worlds around BridgeIV-A/A'.

11:14:52Tachyon carved. ARS scouted: translocator starship (default), saboteur, polarizer. Nothing interesting, IMO. At least not worth a hack.A wave of around 250 infiltrators (and one starleech) was hard-stopped by defensive layout. All were decloaked and grabbed by the tractors under the range of all my MkI turrets. Needless to say that none survived, and the only damage they caused is some turrets paint-scratched.One step forward, there was a fortress. I sent my whole fleet in the battle and there is no more fortress. Casualties are more than 700 ships (250 autocanons, 300 EtherJets, and some other) and a level 1 reprisal warning.16 Disassemblers just warped in from RingIV where I have no scouts. Better run away before the twins join the party."Better run away before the twins join the party"... Sounds like a girlish manga.11:15:538 starships swallowed; I was unable to rescue them before the twins come.75 Riot are in the place. The 20 missile joined soon after. 7 MkIII disassemblers are being repaired, the other are busted hulls the ZMedic Frigates don't bother even try to repair.I hesitate. Should I grab more territory and have a continuous empire, or should I go archipelago now? There is a MkIV planet adjacent to no alarm that I'll do better taking or letting out of alert; if I want to take the bridge, I'll need to take it. It would cut all BridgeIV-A and A' but there is other bridges between RingIV and RingV. However, I'll be adjacent to two planets adjacent to the core worlds around Ice's lair.Okay, let's go empire and raise this AIP!

11:21:24One more step on RingIV. Full turrets deployed.Reprisal level 2 turned into a near 850 ships wave... on RingI (ASC). Great.Here is the plan: fleet will rush toward ASC (I'll use transports... for this time. The road is pretty long... 11 hops, actually.) while the raiders will start to neuter the MkIV world on RingIV.11:24:24The transports made it just in time. The wave is only tachyon microfighters (almost all MkII, but the AI tech is I... strange) and two Plasma SShips.

11:30:0940 Marauders spawned on RingIV/MkIV while my whole fleet was fighting the MkIV missile frigate armada here. They think I'm weakened by the fight? Not enough for them to take me. I wreak this MkIV Needler GPost and I'm coming for you.Oh! The AI just reinforced the planet with 75 ships. Mostly frigates. Looks like this planetary AI-thread loves frigates.

11:31:43Marauders and AI cleaned from the planet. OCStation built (military, of course).However, I'm facing a little logistic problem: this planet has two wormholes and I don't have enough tractor turrets. Should I take one tractor from every hostile wormhole? 10 MkI seems too much. Let see. Each turret has 31 tractor beams, and regular waves these days have between 200 and 250 ships. 9 tractor turrets are able to hold 279 ships: it's okay for this AIP level. I have a total of 9 hostile wormholes (the two on Back are aligned and count as one; nomads don't use tractors) and I wish to have some on my homeworld (two wormholes). I have 96 MkI tractor turrets; if I want to put 9 on each, I'll be short of 3 turrets. I may consider homeworld wormholes less important ; I would put 10 on each 9 hostile wormholes (changing barely nothing), and distribute the 6 remaining on each home wormholes. Or I could unlock the MkII tractors for more turret cap and much more tractors, but I don't feel the absolute necessity of injecting knowledge in turrets right now.For now: scavenge home's tractors.

11:41:05The last AIP reducer is gone. I'm now stuck beyond of 200. RingV is mostly tachyon-free. Planet adjacent to Ice's core were easily neutered (they are <= MkII)However, threat climbed up to 800. I remember many MkII but at least some MkIV. I don't know exactly where they are, but I'll find them. Or they'll find me; it depends! Some high mark raiders were sent to rebuilding but my metal is nicely keeping up. (Yeah, early game low economy was really bad luck.)I need to continue the core diving.

11:50:15EtherJets were doing some threat grabbing. Raiders assassinated two alarms to let me pass through (achievement related). I'll be able to grab RingV's A-prime and ARS.Nomad 4 is taking a beating. Everything would be fine if the 34 Fire's MkIV space planes weren't radar dampening my fortress... Sounds like threat backstab. Fortunately, they hesitate to give the final blow and Ice's TeleThings keep suiciding on lightning turrets surrounding the WJammer OCStation.11:51:43Nomad 4 is fine. The fortress did help.First step on RingV. Next step will be A-prime and ARS. Let's do this before the hourly report, for the sake of showing off.And still in the path of showing off, let's build a missile silo and a MkI lightning warhead here instead of bringing home's one: this next A-prime/ARS has an Ice bunkerer that I don't want to bother busting "by hand". (However, a cloaker starship will be brought from home.)Nomad 4 continue to tank Ice's teleporting stuff.With all my scouts on the South-East quarter of RingIV and RingV, I can see the threatfleet passing by BridgeIII-B and massing for a backstab on my frontiers on RingII and RingIII. EtherJets on their way.11:55:17Wohoo! Pile of pain traded against pile of dust and one pain token (+1 AIP)!Let clean this before admiral's arrival. You've got 5 minutes!11:57:47Ha! That's what I call cleaning a mess! This bunker was setup in no time like if it always belonged to us!Some disassemblers passing by? Bha! Probably nothing.(seconds latter)Twins detected, one hop away.How long does it takes to build an armored warhead? How many?!? Okay, forget about it. Leave the bunker, we'll take it latter.11:58:04Twins passed the wormhole. Everybody fall back!11:58:36The twins snapped their... things... and the bunker is ashes. 75 Riot Starships and 20 Missile Guardians applause.Sniper turrets scrapped to make them leave sooner.What? Nomad 4 station was destroyed? I didn't even get a "station under attack warning"! Well, two spire starships (MkI and II) and a MkIII StarLeech are dancing on its remains. So bad the planet is moving away from my territory. So much for the hourly report.

12:00:00Weeeell... No-that-bad hour, despite its messy ending. First step on RingV. Ice's home is in reach and there is no more CSG, but I still have some tasks on my checklist. Like the ZArchives and maybe an AdvFacto.HaP: 163 (wow, the hacking team has been busy!)AIP: 258 (wow, the AI too!)Knowledge: 23,000 (+ 4,750 available) (wow, the science team too!)Empire: 19 planets (1 home, 1 nomad (+1 busted) plus 17 others), 8 on RingI, 2 on RingII, 2 on RingIII, 4 on RingIV, 2 on RingV.Unlocks: same plus translocator starships (from ARS).So bad I can't make a precise energy checkout now.Wana know what? I'm thinking I'll expand the achievements. I'm here to get tech, not to consume it. I think I'll add "save as much knowledge as possible". Also, the "download ALL stealth DBUps" seems more and more in reach ; I think I'll bust Ice's home even before being in reach of Fire's home, capture it and use the AIP/HaP to download the remaining stealth DBUps. (I need 3 more, the next will cost 168,75 and I don't want to calc the total!) But maybe then I'll need to use more knowledge... Maybe "save K" would rather be "don't use the ZArchives' content". We'll see.Red.Queen? What do you think? You setup this challenge in the first place.Hey! Maybe if I manage to achieve this, you'll grant yourself some sort of bonus in your next AAR, like if I was actually working for the Red.Queen... Don't know how to justiry it yet... We'll see latter. (Oh, I already imagine crossed AARs where each player have a game on its own but where consequences impact next mate's setup... Calm down, Ppk, finish this one first!)

12:04:19Alarm death-triggered on RingVI. MkIII TeleThings were on my OCS's FField before the raiders; they put a dent in it but fortunately they were handled before worst.Makes me think I should put mines just around the FField because the TeleThings tend to stuck themselves to it.12:05:09A MkII wave warp on RingIII. Half of my fleet was waiting for it but 40 vampires managed to slip past the tachyon (tractors are useless against them) and sucked my ECollector. Fortunately, I'm far from low energy and they can do nothing to my command station.12:05:50The MkIII counterattack wave (from Ice's bunkerer SubCom) warped somewhere on RingI. The naked ecoII OCS was quickly killed by the telethings but the other half of my fleet is in the place. Yet again, no energy problem.12:07:15As the remains of the counterwave are cleaned, and before I even chose my next move, a 300 ships wave declares on RingIV. The IA is clearly taking advantage of its new Tech allowed. I wonder if I won't take some data reserved for the Red.Queen to defend the whole Knowledge booty (and survive enough to loot the rest). I was tempted to unlock all the stealth models to MkIII but it would cost me 20,000 K.Let's do a full analysis of the hull types used by the AI.

Ice has TeleBS and STeleLeech (medium), TeleRaider (ultra-light), Infiltrator and LGatling (swarmer), ZEBomber (neutron), Armor (ultra-heavy), TachyonMF (light).Fire has VClaw, EyeBot, Raptor and EJet (refractive), Infiltrator, NYCommando and ACannon MPod (swarmer), SPlane and NYShrike (ultra-light), ZMedicF (medium), Chameleon (close-combat).Fire's SStealth BShip has been corrupted. Fire and Ice have both Infiltrator.So: refractive (4), swarmer (4), medium (3) and ultra-light (3) are big targets. The other hull types have only one model each (but the light, which has TachyonMF and StdFighter).Among the turret types, MLRS has swarmer and ultra-light, Missile and Sniper have both medium and ultra-light, Lightning has refractive and ultra-light. Laser can help against refractive and Flak against swarmer.It's also to be considered that some ships are immune to tractor beams and others teleport: VClaw (refractive), SPlane and TeleRaider (ultra-light), TeleBS and STLeech (medium).EyeBot and VClaw are immune to missiles, however Missile and MLRS turrets have no bonus against them.The Missile and Sniper turrets have bonuses against all tractor-immunes/teleporters (but the VClaw, which is immune to missile; this is another problem); thanks to their great range, they would be able to target everything between the wormhole and the OCStation. One the right target and at MkI, Missile turret has (144*3/12*3=) 108 DPS and Sniper has (188/8*5=) 117 DPS, but sniper has half the cap of the Missile, so half the cap-DPS. However, sniper can target vampires and has full armor piercing; let see... TeleRaider and SPlane have none, STLeech has 12 at MkIV and TeleBS has 36 at MkIV. Higher range is irrelevant: most foes can teleport or cloak and stab. However, sniper has higher K-cost; if for more K I get less DPS, I'll take the Missile model. Choice done.Then, what for the swarmer and refractive? For the swarmer, I already have the MkV Flak. The next choice will be around refractive. Laser, MLRS or Lightning? Lightning's bonus against ultra-light would be more rarely used because most ultra-light in this game are tractor-immune. MLRS would also cover the already-covered swarmer, handled by the Flak; no overkill is needed. So what? Laser? Lame vanilla laser? Well, it has bonuses against bombers (Lightning too) and most starships (while none against the plasma starship, so bad). However, lightning, while having the same bonus against bombers, has also a bonus against ZEBomber, which is part of the thread. But, hey! Why do I bother? More than the half of the stealth models (all except the Infiltrator, ACannon MPod and NYShrike, in fact) are refractive! I take them both! LightningandLaser!What?!? The lightning turret has 200 armor? Why haven't you said it before?! I would never again put them under a FField! And their range isn't that short! Don't make the same mistake as R.Q: never trust a tooltip.

Other question: are high mark turrets knowledge-efficient? What is the best: unlock two MkII turrets or one MkII and MkIII? Arh, wiki data is outdated.The three short-range/non-AoE turrets (Needler, Laser and MLRS) have radar dampening at higher mark, MkIII being slightly better than MkII but MkIV being equal to MkIII.They have all linear DPS (MkN being N*MkI dps). However, the flak is strange: it gains range with mark (4,000 + Mk*1,000) and its DPS is sub-linear. Maybe because it has AoE damage, however it's not written anywhere (only in the "lore" description).Well, flak and sniper aside, let divide this by knowledge cost. MkII cost 750 and is worth 2*MkI; let say 375 K for the equivalent of 1 MkI firepower. MkIII cost 1,250 and is worth 3*MkI, which makes 416.666 K for 1 MkI. MkIV cost 1,500 for 4*MkI: 375 K for 1 MkI. Conclusion: MkIII is more expansive firepower than MkII; MkIV is equivalent to MkII. So sad, I wished "deep research" would be more interesting than "broad research". I would be if MkIII would cost 1,000 instead of 1,250.I'll do the calc for the needler, just to see. MkII cost 500, so 250 per MkI firepower; MkIII cost 1,000, so 333.3 per MkI; MkIV is 1,250, so 312.5 per MkI. Conclusion: MkIII and IV are less interesting than MkII. SO SAAAD!However, Sniper and Spider MkIV have the same K-cost as MkIII (and MkI spider has a non-zero K-cost). I won't do the calc, but these two appears more interesting to research in deep, but they are overall more expansive and less powerful (I'm speaking of raw firepower).That means I would do better taking more MkII, but if I venture to unlock MkIII, the MkIV would be as K-efficient as other MkIIs.

Then? Conclusion? Missile against teleporters and tractor-immune; Flak against the swarmers; Lightning and Laser against the cloaked. Great! For now, only MkII; total K-cost is 2,250. However I don't know if the energy will keep up. At least I'll replace the MkI Flak by the MkV: to energy consumption won't change; but I would like to pile MkI and II for the other, at least on the frontier worlds.

Staring at the galaxy map, looking at all the planets I would capture, thinking at all that AIP I would rise... I think I'm not done with turret unlocking. Coool!Long long play (omagad, many hours for less than 10 minutes ingame). I love this game!

New objective: save as much knowledge as possible, at least two ZArchives worth of K (2*9,000). The role-play reason will be explained.

12:15:04Wave tanking, threat cleaning, turret building... And still some thread is hanging out there. The number of ships displayed on the top-right of the GUI (350, currently) is quite misleading because there is many starships, guardians and high mark ships.Now that the bigger part is done, I'll send all my cloaked fleet on Nomad 4 with a bunch of RRebuilders. The rest of my fleet would continue the threat cleaning duty.

12:39:52Nomad 4 has been rebuilt and enhanced. My stealth fleet is back merged into my main threat cleaning / wave tanking fleet.Threat is still at 350 ships, oddly enough, but the total strength is far below what it used to be.Waves are scary-big these days. My fleet is going back and forth to defend here and there, but I will soon need some defenses improvements. 250 AIP is quite unusual for me, and I plan on rising it again.However, I can still use my fleet for defense and letting offense to star-raiders, while being able to receive the threat and reprisal they would induce. If so, I'll need to change the OCStations along the way diving to the core from military to logistic. The speed boost will be useful for reaching waves from a side to another, but logistic OCS have less health and are much more sensitive to plasma siege starships. Or I could unlock the ZSTManipulator. Or I could gateraid the planet just after my ASC and having RingI mostly untouched by waves. We'll see.Main problem for now: energy. I'm running one metal converter and I'm below 10,000 energy. The armored warhead is still near my Home OCStation, still eating 50,000 energy. I'm also supporting 3 fortresses at 90,000 each. I need more planets, but more non-frontier planets. I could also unlock the Economic OCStation MkIII, but it would take me away from the Knowledge achievement and I won't have place to put all them 6; I could replace the MkII but it still would be waste. My metal eco isn't bad, right now, so I guess I can run some metal converters until I find something better... like a ZPGenerator, maybe. There is one on RingVI, and it's near my path.

12:41:19Gate raided on RingI after the ASC. Aaaand... there is a warp gate guardian. Crap!

12:42:11AI OCStation blew up on the RingV side of the BridgeV-A, adjacent to my territory. There is a core starship constructor for a MkV heavy bomber. Nice, I'll blow fortresses with this!Full fleet deployed; SForces are seen nowhere but I wait their strike before taking this planet.Big 400 ships wave MkII declares... on RingI, ASC world. Sweet. Looks like the AI understand my plans. So bad: my raiders were chasing the WGate Guardian seconds before it declares.Better back my fleet now (so much for the SForces bait) and transport it to RingI as soon as possible. I hope it won't be too late. I have 2:30 until warp.Crap! Not enough energy for the transports. Second metal converter online!12:44:54Wave hit ASC world. Transports are 5 hops away. TeleRaiders have been unloaded and sent ahead (why have I loaded them in the first place?); raiders are already here. Near 100 teleThings are on my FField.12:45:18Well, not that bad. MkI/II Missile turrets in range of the OCStation handled the teleThings (they have no bonus against TeleRaiders but it's ok); the tractor beams kept the non-teleporting things under the fire of my other turrets and the military OCS is keeping away the remaining starships (ah, not the Zenith one) while the missile slowly hammer them.My TeleRaiders teleport in but the battle is already over. I panicked for nothing; looks like MkII turrets were a good investment.Transports sent back to RingV.

12:49:56An EJet threat-grab mission went well when 18 HRFighters came to... help? The "battle" took less than a second: the threatfleet was passing by the wormhole, the EJets did a warp-in/warp-back and the starships got naked in a blink. According to HRFighters this was a battle and they decided to join it. (Minutes latter: a MkIV flagship and a MkI spire starship was too much for them... So sad...)

12:53:48Wohoo! Full fleet assault on RingVI is shaking the hornet nest like a pinata party! A looooong procession of MkIII SFighters escaped during the ion-raid and is beelining toward RingIII, while a 600 ships Fire wave declares on RingII and a 450 ships Ice reprisal declares on RingIII (there is the core TeleRaider constructor on Ice's target). 2:30 before the pinat'hive explode. MkIII turrets? Nha, never mind, it'll be fine.However, all turrets weren't deployed on the targeted planets. I pause-built them (one more MConverter); 30 seconds or 1 minute build time? I've got the metal; it'll be fine.12:56:36Ah, Fire's VClaws assassinated the ECollector; 3 MConverters ordered.Oh, Ice's TeleThings are on the power-naked core constructor... 3 MConverters NOW!!!Good team work from Fire&Ice. (I love this game!)12:56:44Phew! (Ouf!, as I would say) They were targeting the OCStation, but while it's a military one, it tanked the brief beating. Everything is fun... but my metal. Well, still 1,000,000 in bank, but I was 3,000,000 minutes earlier.Yeah! The MkI/II missile turrets are doing wonders. I was afraid to see a bomber starship coming on the FField but they finished the TeleThings quickly and made short work of the offending starship.

12:58:01RingVI assault is done; the other end of BridgeV-A is neutered. I have to admit that the FField immune VClaws + Infiltrators are good to hinder enemy firepower when the full fleet attacks a GPost+FField+fleet combo (they attack the fleet under the FField while the rest of my fleet hammer the FField through the GPost and spare them some reprisal). Maybe it's not a big difference, but it helps.This bridge end has a core VClaw fabricator. Good! However there is an alarm on a MkIV bunkerer SubCom near. On the other side, there is the ZPGenerator just near, but a MkIV obstructionist SubCom one more hop away. Troubles on the way.

12:59:45I lack energy. Really. I'm running 5 MConverters and I'm still in need of turrets and energy. Too many frontiers. I need the ZPGen, badly.

13:00:00O.o 1,370 ships CPA declared on this precise second. (There already is a 600 ships Ice wave on the far side of RingIV, but it's routine.)Long hour. A lot of theory and planning. But things are going along the road.HaP: 195 (enough for the next download)AIP: 290Knowledge: 28,500Empire: 21 planets (1 home, 2 nomads plus 18 others), 8 on RingI, 2 on RingII, 2 on RingIII, 4 on RingIV, 3 on RingV.Unlocks: same plus Laser, Missile and Lightning turrets MkII, plus HBomber SShip MkV (fabricator).When did Fire unlocked armor booster? This would fit more for Ice...Nomad 2 and 4 are orbiting outside RingI, as always, and 1 and 3 are between RingV and RingVI. I'm a bit disappointed with their circular and regular pattern; I expected more chaos with them. Anyway, I'll need to deal with Nomad 1 and 3 because now I have a good graps on RingV and they are routing toward this "diving head". (More drilling than diving, after all.)

13:00:40Nomad 1 is in wormhole-range of my territory, linked to a less-defended non-frontier world. Luckily it's very lightly defended because it was (almost?) never alerted. I has a 100 ships barracks and a MkIV SSSphere GPost. I'll also remove its warp gate, but I'm not sure if I'll capture it. At least not now.Oh, and 78 RFighters joined a EJet threat-grab mission on RingIII. No SShip is fearsome here and they are numerous. Let's see how they'll do.

13:02:46Nomad 1 WGate is down, but 200 TeleThings are on my raiders! Where do they come from? Threat? Or maybe Ice's RingIV warp? Probably because this wave has no TeleThings (unless TeleBS, but there is no TeleBS on Nomad 4). But if it's the case, they took the long path around the galaxy by RingV. Strange behavior. !!fun!! behavior!I know that attacking ships have a logic where they can go for another target if the current planet is considered overwhelmed, but with teleporting ships, it made a very... !!emergent!! situation.On RingIII, the HRFighters did a good job: they're 70 by now. But... and this but is huge... they are in route toward the RudeGesture SubCom's OCStation... which is a Troop-Accelerating one... with 10,000 strength sleeping around...

13:03:38Fleet cleaned the tele-mess on Nomad 1; RingIV wave was handled by the turrets (the OCS was near-naked, though).Funny fact: while the HRFighters are pinat'hive-ing the Troop Accelerating SubCom, SForce are passing by without taking care of them.Time for a SF-update: 2 H/K, 16 Disassemblers (8 MkI, 8 MkIII), 20 MkII Missile Guardians, 75 Riot (only?), and many MkIII ZMedicF (around 30), some Chameleon, Bombers, Gatlings (around 30 each) and 75 MkII/III ZEBombers. Oh, and maybe these 150 MkIII Standard and Tachyon-micro Fighters ahead of the twins are SForces too. Fearsome. They are routing toward the core, maybe on their way to Nomad 1. I need to take this SSShpere GPost quick!

13:05:55Done and out.Intel confirmed SForces data. Fearsome, indeed.I decided to build fleet and starship warpgates on my deepest world (11 hops from home), the one with the core HBomber SShip constructor.

13:07:47I wish I could go out with my raiders and take down some alarms and command stations to progress in my diving, but the SForce is out there and I'm forced to wait for the CPA.

13:13:02CPA hits. 1049 MkII ships freed + 321 MkII ships from SReserve.A 800 ships carrier and a 250 one spawned on RingI; they can go for the ASC or for Nomad 4, and I can't defend none right now. That makes about 300 ships in CPA still invisible.A near-400 ships will soon warp on Back; I hope it will hold it alone (fortress supporting).An alarm was destroyed soon before, allowing me to make my first steps on RingVI. I'll do this after this CPA fighting.13:13:30The carriers on RingI seems to separate, the 800 toward Nomad 4 and the 250 toward ASC. Good; I prefer losing Nomad than the ASC.A regular threat cleaning is processing on Nomad 1, between RingV and RingVI. (It was released by the last alarm raid.)13:14:18Threat mostly cleaned on Nomad 4; the SForce warps back. My fleet flew but many EJets came after them and grabbed many of my ships; fortunately, many swarmers (ACannon MPods and Infiltrators).Energy brownout: 30 VClaws in the big wave of Back was attracted by the ECollecter like flyes by a lamp. But the lamp loose, this time. MConvertors ordered on home.13:14:51Back took a beating; the OCStation fell and many turrets were destroyed, but the heavy fire-rain of my turrets hammered them flat. When the last survivors were insta-killed all at once by the snipers, the two MkII plasma SShips decided do turn back, but they were caught up by the long range missiles. The fortress is already repairing all it can around it; it's good support unit.When I look back at the fight, I think Fire has a good support team with the ZMedic and the ArmorBoosters, however I think the ZMedic are less efficient within the fight, and more interesting in post-fight, or as escort and occasional extra tankiness on retreat. But the ABoosters in the hands of the AI are a true pain (I'm fighting against some in a parallel game with a friend).

13:15:08325 ships carrier detected on RingVI. 350 Fighters MkIII are threat-pilled on RingIII (the other half of the alarm-threat); I'll send the EJets, one day.Also, I remark they tend to pile up on the clockwise side of RingIII. It's not stupid because to go from RingIV to RingIII, it's the shortest path. Maybe I should fortify this side rather than the other.

13:17:41This time, while the EJets were grab-raiding threat, Marauders showed up (instead of HRFighters). I'm going to make a second and last cloak-grab raid but then let them deal with the other humans.A near-500 ships Ice wave declared on RingIII... anticlockwise side; the one I just lightened in benefit for the clockwise side.My cloaked ships are already in route to help Nomad 4 (and my EJets are threat-grabbing), and I can't dedicate all the rest of my fleet to this wave because the carrier on RingVI will backstab me just when the wave will warp. So I'll need to defend RingIII with a third of my fleet. I hope it will stand the knock.

Side note: I remember this parallel game with a friend where he went full fleet and I went full starfleet, the Leeches MkI-IV were much more effective than I supposed in the first place (seeing only the MkI) and I ended up with near as many fleetships as him. I think I'll steal some Knowledge from the Red.Queen's share and get some high-end leeches; it would be much more K-efficient than unlocking fleetships myself. However, it'll require one more MConverter (I'm already running 3).

13:20:37The wave on RingIII was handled well, but I doubt the turrets alone would have saved the TeleRaider fabricator from the TeleThings or the starships.("would have saved"? I wouldn't have written it on an English school test... Is that correct?)Nomad wormholes changed. Nomad 4 continue to turn along RingI; the carrier follow it; my stealth fleet is ordered to go further. Nomad 1 and 3 are no more an annoying bridge (and a defense perimeter flaw) between RingV and VI.

13:21:06The carrier on RingI, just after the ASC, unloaded its content as my invisible fleet pass by. The EJets are ordered to stop and deal with the unloaded fighters. Wait a second; they're not as many as the carrier told me they are. *check the planetary summary* 75 Raptors MkII? They're not tractor-immunes! Stick to the plan!(seconds latter)Ouch! I didn't notices the raptors have bonus against cloaked/refractive (they are refractive themselves, strange).However, 32 HRFighters warped in.Oh, and I've got two eye's warnings! Ah, it's ok, there is just two eyes (Parasite and Ion) on RingI, on my stealth-fleet path. Never mind. (You can't kill what you can't see.)

13:25:10Pre-battle summary.All my stealth fleet (but EJets) are on Nomad 4 (near 2,300 str), in front of a big part of the CPA (near 3,350 str).The Ejets (near 600 str) are in front of the rest of the last alarm threat (1,000 str).There is a part of the CPA (1,800 str) in front of my lonely ASC.On BridgeV-A there is some CPA (more than 4,500 str) against my main fleet, fleshly StarLeech-enhanced (8,900 str).On the eco side, I'm running 6 MConverters and my metal is below 1,000,000 but with a +3,400 m/s (no salvage).Ready for the big fight?

13:28:35Threat cleaned on RingVI, few casualties on my side. Interestingly, my leeches reclaimed a full cap (19) of ZEBombers MkIII and 66 SFighters MkIII, and some other little things. The Impulse Emitters MkV (their core constructor was destroyed a long time ago) are now 24 (out of 96).Threat on RingIII flew when my EJets warped in; the EJets were assigned to another threat-grabbing mission on RingII, counterclockwise, this time.A 400-ships Fire wave declare on back. It's far, my fleet is away, Back is well defended: it will hold without fleet support.MFrigates (MkI-II) have been loaded into a transport and sent to threat-clean the world after the ASC: this threatfleet is mostly made of SFighters and Raprots and the frigates have bonuses against both.Meanwhile, my main fleet will take out two OCStations on RingIV and fall back (hopefully) before SForces arrival, then capture them, then neuter the new frontiers.

13:31:41Wave on Back stood. Some EyeBots put some FField-immune missiles in the OCStation and the ECollector, but nothing was destroyed.Threat-grabbing on RingII went good; starships are still an issue, though.The RingVI side of BridgeV-A is neutral; the MkVI world with the ZPGenerator is being neutered; the SForce is still patrolling two hops away on RingV. Strange...

13:32:07The MFrigate assault on RingI went badly: there is still a lot of SFighters and Raptors MkII, and a StarLeech reclaimed 34 MFirgates MkII. I'll need to punch it harder; I'll do it latter.

13:35:38The ZPGenerator world is neutered and neutral; my raiders took down a MkI ion cannon on the A-prime world that I plan on taking soon and the SForces decided to come and see. Two worlds fell and they didn't give a sh*t; some raiders destroyed one little thing on a A-prime and they all come after them. AI logic... Anyway, time to fall back.Ow, rude: all (almost) my leeches have been swallowed! (one MkVI and some MkI-II haven't) My metal is away from full, sadly.Ice declare 250 ships wave on RingII. My fleet has nothing to do for now; I'll wait for the SForce to get out of the neutral territory before capturing it, so I can go help on RingII.Threat on RingI after the ASC are spawning a warp relay (52%, nothing important).Makes me remember that my stealth-fleet and the remains of the last CPA are still waiting around Nomad 4.Oh, while swallowed ships don't count in ship cap (I remember beta-testing DoW and reading many complaints about the new Power Slavers, leading to this feature), they still count in the energy balance? Mantis?

13:39:04Wave on RingII is ashes, now. SForces are away from RingVI, but they seems to be in route toward RingIII, maybe RingII (clockwise side).Threat on RingIII is spawning a warp relay? There is less than 1,000 strength... Maybe it's because they are here from a long time.

13:42:16A Nomad wormhole change made the threatfleet displaced and I thought it would be a good idea to attack them just as they get out from the wormhole, away from any GPost. However, Infiltrators and ACannon MPods (swarmer) were quickly destroyed by the very numerous MkII MFrigates (x6 against swarmers). However, the SStealth BShips tanked a lot, even if they are now almost all dead. The my VClaws are either (almost) all alive (MkII) or half-reclaimed (MkI) but while they are missile-immune (I didn't remembered) they are holding the distance quite well. The MkIII StarLeech will be a concern on the long term, however, and there is 300 MkII MFrigates left.Albeit the fight took place in Fire territory, Ice is sending a 1,000 ships reprisal wave on RingIII. Needless to say my whole fleet is in route.13:43:22No more VClaws to defend Nomad 4. However, there is "only" 200 MFrigates left on the AI side... And some more VClaws, I admit it.Fire trigger a 800 ships reprisal on RingV (oops, no turrets here; I'll need metal and energy!) 2:30 after Ice's one. I guess the MkIII ZReserve will be useful.13:45:18Ice's reprisal on RingIII was overwhelming. The TeleThings busted the FField, core constructor (TeleRaiders) and OCStation (energy brownout followed up). Looks like Ice targeted my attempt to mimic its teleporting ability. Time to handle Fire's one and protect the core Flak controller.Arh! I can't build more MConverters on home. 10 of them, already?13:46:49Guess what? Three warp relays are spawning and Fire decided to trigger a 750 ships wave on the other side of RingV (at least it's not far away from its reprisal target).13:46:58Fire's reprisal is 4 MkI HBomber SShips and... near 800 MkII ZChameleon. My fleet's strength is 3 time greater, so I won't get the ZReserve.13:47:48Wow... the Flak controller was scratched but nothing more. Time to fun to the second Fire's wave!13:49:27Okay, this one was more schizophrenic and handled more easily. This severely delayed my RingVI captures, and I still need to make some threat-cleaning. Great!!!

13:52:23I neglected the warp relays and captured the two neutral planets on RingVI. I now have a ZPGenerator (I scrapped all my MConverters. My metal is back to 5,000 m/s!Phew!) and a MkV VClaws! (Wohoo! Their icon is very different from the MkIV one) It's time to rebuild the StarLeeches and clean that threat! Oh, and turrets placement time! (Ah, tractor, tachyon and FFields, why aren't you capped per planet?)I scrapped all the needler and MLRS turrets (the one that I let to MkI for bonus choices) because I was near to entirely eat my ZPGenerator! So lightning, laser and missile turrets MkI and II on every frontier world, and no more needler and MLRS. MkI flak have also been scrapped; the MkV is so much more energy-efficient. Inner planets are left with MkI snipers and MkII missiles. Back, ASC and the two nomads have a special autorization for full turrets deployment.Well, this is much better, energy wise, and with the clever turret types choice (at least I cogitated (oh sweet, this word exists in English!) on this) I think the firepower isn't too diminished.However, I'm lacking FFields and tractors. While extreme knowledge saving is a personnal achievement in this game, I'm still refraining from unlocking tractors MkII and some more FFields.FFields on tractors, I can go without them. However, tractors are a key component of my turret strategy, so I really need more. However, I think unlocking the tractors MkII would be a bit overkilling. *check their K-cost* Oh!? They're less than 1,000 K!?! They are twice as resilient (health, armor), have more than two times more tractors and a longer range! (And their build time is longer but their metal cost is the same... strange.) Well, I think I'll get the MkII, after all. Sorry, R.Q!Sooo... How will we share these new tractors? I have 15 hostile wormholes to defend (not counting the nomads and counting as one the planets where there is two lined up, and counting the two on Home). And I will have more. Can I plan for a grand total of 20 wormholes? Let see.First, I'll allocate an equal number of MkI and MkII tractors on each wormhole. With 10 (5 of each), I can cover 19 wormholes. That may sounds a bit short for my project, but provided I tried to stay with 10 MkI tractor per wormhole, I'll double the current capacity and improved already existing tractor packs with range and number of tractor beams. So 5 MkI and 5 MkII per wormhole sounds fine.Also, with this improvement, I think I can remove the FFields from the tachyon/tractor/flak packs; I consider that if they get crunched, they're worth (barely) nothing, and if they don't, they were useless. It's a bit extreme, but as we're not playing Fallen Spire in a bottleneck, I consider this acceptable.

13:52:48Ouch. While my metal economy faceplant under the burden of the many turret relocations, Ice declares a 1,000 ships wave on RingIII (9 hops away from the head of my core drill). Turrets on RingVI are not deployed yet but there is no threat here to backstab... However, the risk is the ZPGenerator and the VClaws MkV. Well, just L-divide the whole fleet? It sounds enough. Let divide the fleet.13:56:28The half-fleet was there in time. However, the many TeleThings put the OCStation's FField down and let the Military OCStation itself at 35% before being hunted down by the fleet and missile turrets. The non-teleporting part of the schyzophrenic wave destroyed almost all the 10 MkI tractors but were managed by the fleet and the turrets. However, three Zenith SShips tanked the heavy fire and achieved the naked OCStation. Tough wave for a regular wave. However, there is nothing important here, and my energy grid is now able to handle much more ECollector failures.

14:00:00I'll count the rebuilding planet as already rebuilt for the clarity of the hourly report.This game is a long game (and the AAR writing make it even longer), but it's fun and, while at difficulty 7/7, the unusual (to me) AIP level stresses my defense skill and pushes me out of my low-AIP tracks. Great!For this hour, more specifically, there were some progress toward the core, while much wave tanking and threat cleaning. Also, my thin "drill empire" is hard to defend at this AIP level, but it's thematic, and anyway, we're just at 7/7.HaP: 247AIP: 342Knowledge: 26,750 (+3,000 available)Empire: 23 planets (1 home, 2 nomads plus 20 others), 8 on RingI, 2 on RingII, 2 on RingIII, 4 on RingIV, 3 on RingV, 2 on RingVI.Unlocks: same plus Leech Starship MkII, Leech Starship MkIII, Tractor Beam Turret MkII (4,750 K spent this hour).

14:00:03Threat cleaned near RingII; the half-fleet is on its way to clean the warp-relay-spawning threat after the ASC.Two threatfleets of 1,500 strength each are piling around Nomad 4 on RingI (and maybe more on RingII that I don't see). Threatening, indeed.Note to self: don't try (again) to grab MFrigates with EJets; the frigates have a x6 bonus against them.

14:04:19While threat is being cleaned on RingI, after the ASC, Fire declares a 1,000 whips wave on RingV, targetting the core Flak controller. Good thing I let the other half of my fleet on RingVI.Ah, still not enough metal for the Leeches and VClaws... but soon.

14:07:13Fire's wave was handled. However, the supporting fleet wasn't too much; the Raptors and VClaws are immune to tractors. This fight make me remember that there is still a big hole in my defense: tractors+tachyon take care of the regular and cloaked annoyance while the missile and snipers can protect the OCStation from TeleThings. However, the VClaws are immune to both tractors and missiles: they spawn, be uncloaked by the tachyon, pass the tractors and suffer minor injuries from the turrets, get away, under the missile turrets' range but don't care, eventually re-cloaked before being decloaked again by the Military OCStation, some are pushed back by its translocator ability but most manage to get under the FField. However, all they can do then is to assassinate the ECollector (the OCStation and the core controllers are immune to fusion cutters). Is that very important, now that I have a ZPGenerator? Maybe this hole can be let open.Some raptors and other nuisances made it back to AI space. Pursuing them would put a core world on alert. I'll neglect them, for now.The other half of my fleet is massing on Back, waiting for Nomad 4 to come in range and clean the threat around it.

14:10:24Ice wave on RingIV, 1,200 ships. I'll never be able to continue my digging, this way.

14:14:45Too much armor ships in the wave on RingIV. Fortunately, there is nothing irreplacable here. Near 50 armor ships escaped and joined threat.Speaking of threat, the on I neglected to defend against this wave is spawning a WRelay on RingII. Many MkIII SFighters so I think a EJet grab would be enough.Tachyon was carved on the adjacent planet on RingVI and a MkII Science lab was sent to scout the ARS: armor booster as a first choice, ZDevastator and NRailpod as redirection options. I'll save HaP and take the ABooster. However, I first need to take down two alarms, one on the middle world and one adjacent to a core world. We're carving ice, today!That make me realize that all the MkIV core worlds are under control of Ice. Very appropriate for the turtle of the two.

14:20:47Aouch!!! 3 MkIII and 2 MkIV raid starships (all I sent) was destroyed by the bunkerer on the middle planet; Ice declare a reprisal warning level 1 ("only"; but it's because the AIP is already pretty high). Anyway, all the alarms I wanted down are down; I can take this ARS and the middle world (with an AdvFacto) without triggering anything. Now, I just need to take them... while handling the WRelays that are spawning on RingI and RingII.Arh! Nomad3 is in range of both my two worlds on RingVI and the ARS world. Guess what? Nomad 3 is an Ice bunkerer with an alarm.

14:21:29Threat grabbed on RingII. Excellent mission: there is only the starships left and the EJets sufferet very few casualties.The MkIII SFighters were grabbed in human territory and brought under the turrets's fire. Seeing that, marauders thought it would be a good idea to attack now.On the other side of the galaxy, Fire sends in a 550 ships wave after the ZPGenerator. Fortunately, the Nomad wormhole is almost lined with the other wormholes, so if they warp there they would be handled by the turrets.

14:21:50Aaaand Ice sends a reprisal wave just next to the ZPGenerator (750 ships), 30 seconds after Fire's one. Nice!

14:24:28Epic battles everywhere! Wohoo!On RingI, two hops after the ASC, one hop deep in AI territory: the threat that was spawning a Warp Relay followed Nomad 2 and my half-fleet pursued them. Forces are barely equivalent but a Parasite Eye will soon change the balance if I don't fall back on Nomad 2 fast enough.On RingII, maybe the less epic, but still uncertain: the EJets lured the ungrabbable Marauders in the turrets, but the Dagger Frigate stay out of range and I needed to engage them at closer range, sacrifying most of my tractors. The fighting isn't finished.On RingVI, the VClaws made short work of the ECollector. Fortunately, the ZPGenerator is immune to them. But not to the eyebots. My other-half-fleet managed them but there is still living fire out there! Starships, ABoosters and ZMedicF are quite resilient. Howerer, under my MkII FField, I think the ZPGen is mostly safe.Ice's reprisal will warps in 15 seconds on the planet next to this one but around 50 MkIII TeleThings are already chewing the FField protecting the core VClaw constructor. I need to move my fleet sooner than expected!14:25:13Good bye, MkV VClaws. On the long run, Ice proved much more lethal than Fire. I admit I expected Ice to be much harder on defense. More than the half of its wave is MkIII, despite it announced a MkII wave.14:27:10Tough times.7 Dagger Frigates are out-ranging turrets on RingII (Radar Dampening > Range is cheating!), Parasite Eye is cancelling Nomad 2 retailation, Ice on RingVI is utterly (discouragingly) overwhelming (I had to shut down my warp gates) and its EJets are tearing my forces and bringing them under Nomad3's MkIII ion cannon, two warp relays are spawning...14:28:22Ice now warps 900 ships toward RingIV. 3 minutes to prepare and metal is faceplanted.At least, the Eye on RingI was GPost-killed with starships and the rest of the fleet can come and clean the planet. At least on thing not so bad.14:28:28Ice followup on the deepest RingV world (with core HBomber fabrocator). Forget about the good thing. Time to blow up a pair of DNodes. Nuclear option is slowly raising in the list of conceivable options.14:29:25A lightning warhead was emergency-built but couldn't save the HBomber fabricator. It couldn't even make a serious dent in Ice's army. 80 HRFighters spawned but didn't lighten the night.14:31:23RingIV's target of Ice didn't stand a chance. The two DNodes' metal is already swallowed by my fleet's rebuilding and the high-end starships aren't out yet.I realize I'm really not tailored for high AIP games. Next time, I'll do it my way.14:32:15Oh, turrets on RingIV disbanded the wave! The OCStation was first to fall, but even without the military bonus, they managed to tear through the MkII/III army. Impressive. I think it's because this planet is much closer to its hostile wormhole; tractors and lightning did wonders.But now the army on RingVI is climbing back to RingV. The economic OCStation on the middle won't last long. My fleet is gathering on RingIII, originally preparing for RingIV.Oh, and just to achieve pissing me off: RingI is already reinforced and a part of this reinforcement turned to threat as my fleet was exiting this theater. All that for nothing.

I pilled up some sessions of play and posted them in one hotnotes bundle, but as you can see I'm still active.

However, I'll be away from keyboard home for the next week and won't be able to continue this game and post hotnotes soon.

Also, Red.Queen has been strangely absent from the forum. (No more AAR, no more ATransport hacking...)This is not totally unrelated to what follows.The Knowledge-saving achievement is weighting on this game. I think I'll be forced to use some to fight back the raising AIP. I'm definitely not accustomed to this level of AIP. We need to discuss how many Knowledge I should save in the end. At least the two SArchives will be untouched and delivered to the Crimson AI, but how many more? Well see.

15:12:29Back in the game after a while.Threat attacks! Waves wave! OCStations fall! Energy brownout! Metal faceplants! Wohoo!!!One HRFighters' spawn to defend the trail of a threatfleet that wreaked three worlds in a row. One HMarauders' spawn after a big wave on Back that was near to kill the OCStation.A total of 5 MConverters were deployed. 4 human OCStations fell in different places.The MkII turrets were upgraded to MkIII (laser, missile and lightning) and panic-dropped during the rush of the battles.Hard time for a "welcome back".

15:15:51Fire launched a 1,000 ships wave on RingVI. As it was just near the planet I want next (the middle planet, with an Ice bunkerer), all my fleet was here (near-fully rebuilt). The funny thing is the second after it warped it, I got 1,000 cloaked ships on the planetary summary. One frame after, my tachyon beamed the pack and the stealth blob divided into 7 different ship types.15:16:0965 VClaws assassinated the ECollector and... whoops: brownout. Bring back a MConverter online!Arh! One second too late. The OCStation was took down before (by a Heavy Bomber, BTW).

15:20:33Ow crap! Ice declares a wave (1,350 ships O.o) to an economic world on RingIV, one step behind the frontier, because of a warp relay I didn't checked. Rude!If I send my fleet, it will delay my attack on the middle world. But even if I do, I'll lose the OCStation (no FField, barely no turret), and maybe I'll have telethings roaming freely on RingIV.My two warheads (lightning MkI and armored MkI) are near the wormhole leading to the middle bunker.Well, anyway, I'm not totally ready to handle this assault, and I'll need to be fully dedicated to it. Okay, let's defend this planet that will fall anyway.... and send the raiders against that damn WRelay!!!15:21:46The WRelay is down! Easier than a gateraid!Well, maybe because the planet was neutered, tachyon-free, and maybe also because I sent it 3 MkIV raid starships. When you dedicate resources (and tech and time) to things, they often become easier.15:25:31 The wave is ashes. The OCStation was instantly destroyed, but nothing wandered off. As it was an Ice wave, the fact it spawned at the edge of the gravity well and half its army teleported into mine, it was a bit easier to take it down telethings first and regular ships after.Energy stood still (above 0 but less than 100, however); metal cost is afordable (not cheap, but affordable... My metal is still faceplanted, but the good income keeps things going). However, the time cost annoys me.Let's run a simulation and see what the warheads can do alone.Second later: wohoo! The MkI lightning (1 AIP) took down all the nasty GPosts! The pair of MkIII FFields are barely scratched, however, and the munition boosting OCStation is still a concern, but it just dropped from "hazardous big fight" to "routine duty" in a glimpse. The armored WHead is sent back. So much for getting rid of this 50,000 energy sink! ^^

15:31:02Middle assault is going along. Fire declares a 800 ships wave to RingIII. Turrets are upgrading to MkIII (I hope the metal will hold the burden). It'll be fin.15:35:14Wave on RingIII destroyed the ECollector and the OCStation (no brownout, I build MConvertors just before) and the remaining wave retreated. Routine...Middle is being captured. I'll need to spend some K in MkIII ships to benefit from the AdvFacto. The Red.Queen is still silent.

15:40:46All my cloaked ships have been upgraded to MkIII to unlock them up to MkIV. There is Infiltrators, VClaws, ACannon MPods, EJet Tractors and SStealth BShip. I don't have enough energy to build them all right now (yep, even with the Zenith PGen), and I'm seriously planning on taking a second ZPGen. There is two on RingI, the nearest is two hops after Back and would cost 45 AIP to capture (2 planets + 1 alarm).But for now, my target is the SArchive on RingVI. It used to have a nuclear eye but my MkIII/IV raider starships neutered it. However, the SArchive is adjacent to a core world with an OMDriver and an alarm. I threw my raiders at the OMD. I also destroyed the tachyon sentinels, but the MkV plasma starships were much more powerful against the raiders than planned. Ice declared a big reprisal wave: 1,700 ships to RingII; I need to send my whole fleet back... Next step is to actually take down the alarm on the core world, then capture the SArchive with a WJammer OCStation.Oh, and Ice was already sending a 1,100 ships wave on Back. Let see how it do without a fleet (all MkI-III turrets + 1 fortress).

15:42:49OCStation on Back fell because of the many telethings, but the turrets wiped the wave shortly after. (Holly nova! The fortress was destroyed in the fight!!!)And it seems that a big part of my army will be in time for the reprisal on RingII.However, Nomad 3 is connected to my territory and it has its warpgate. I need to handle it soon after the reprisal.14:43:35Oh gosht, the threat on RingVI backstabbed! It's 10 seconds before reprisal hit and my AdvFacto is isolated from my empire.At least the threatfleet isn't enormous and it's not immediately going for the throat, but there is two plasma siege starships MkV that will be impossible to take out quickly.15:44:07Sounds like Ice's reprisal is only TeleRaiders MkIII. OCStation is ashes and I'm running 3 MConverters. Good thing my fleet is here.

15:52:24Threatfleet on RingVI was handled some minutes ago.Fire sent 800 Raptors on my ZPGen planet. Quite fun to see the fight. I reclaimed full caps of MkII and MkIII but some escaped.I have three warp relays spawning. However, two of them are on RingI and RingII and adjacent to nomad planets only, so I won't bother hunting them. However, the last threaten Ring IV and V. I'll need to deal with this threatfleet.Ouch, my metal is faceplanted.

16:00:50Oops, I missed the hourly report. Never mind.Two big fight took place in two far places: Back handled a big Ice's wave (Fortress and OCStation went down, but the wave was finally wiped; Lightning turrets are fearsome, maybe not in true DPS, but each time they hit the AI feels it), and I captured the SArchive with a WJammer after a big fleet fight. I love this game!Also, the threatfleet building a WRelay on RingV was grabbed by EJets (MkI and II only; they're very efficient, sometimes).

16:00:00HaP: 330AIP: 425Knowledge: 12,500 (Not counting the SArchive)Empire: 26 planets (1 home, 2 nomads plus 23 others), 8 on RingI, 2 on RingII, 2 on RingIII, 4 on RingIV, 3 on RingV, 4 on RingVI and the one in the middle.Unlocks: Laser, Missile and Lightning turrets MkIII (3,750 Knowledge); Infiltrator, VClaw, ACannon MPod, EJet Tractor and SStealth BShip MkIII (20,000 Knowledge).All the goals for this hour have been fulfilled! Juuust in time, but fulfilled! The ASC, the AdvFacto and the SArchive! Wohoo!And damn, turrets are K-cheap! Well, I would need a second ZPGen to handle them all, but... Wait: 4,500 Knowledge and 45 AIP for three caps of MkIV turrets? Deal! That will be my new goal! And I think it won't be difficult, because RingI is already almost neutered.On the other side of the galactic workdesk, I have one last SArchive to take, but on the far side of RingV (not counting the DGLair right on it). Maybe I'll take the two nomads and rope-drop on it. So sad the route of the nomads are so predictable, but it could serve me. However, taking the two nomads sounds like an overkill. Nomad 1 is already neutered; I didn't took it because it has the Beacon on it and I promised I won't capture it, but I can capture the planet and let the IA self-destruct the Golem. So this will be the second part of the plan: capture Nomad 1, drop on the second SArchive, kill the Dire Guardian Lair guarding it and WJam-capture it. Then I'll focus on killing Fire & Ice.Also, I have some HaP stashed. I always end up being short HaP in early game, but once in late game, I tend to forget about it and win with a big HaP stash. I could make a design download right now. There is the Shrike, Plane and EyeBot designs out there, but they're deep in AI territory and the Hunters are still lurking. Maybe some border Knowledge raids, but I feel it would be more hassle for no true benefit. It would definitely be roleplay, however. I don't know, we'll see later.

16:07:03Omagad! 3,700 ships in route to my ZPGen (Fire wave). I hope they're NYounglings!16:09:46Okay, they are ACannon MPods. No problem.

16:12:5640 HMarauders show up after Nomad 1's cleanup. Poor guys.

16:13:38Ice want to compete too in the ridiculously high numbers challenge: it declares a 2,500 ships wave to RingII. Full MkI-III turrets are already built on its target world, and I think I'll let things go.

16:15:19Cloaked and TeleThings are delaying the Nomad's capture...A CPA announce: 2,800 ships withing 13 minutes. Seriously? This is the size of a wave! Well, I know this time it won't be Minipods, but still... However, the global threat counter is already high. Maybe I'll invest in MkIV turrets earlier, and accelerate the capture of the ZPGen.16:15:32Oh! Nomad delay isn't a delay! It's a revenge! The cloaked and TeleThings were the vanguard of the SForces! Run for your life!(Okay, only two starships have been swallowed.)16:16:38Ow crap! Ice's big wave was entirely made of MFrigates. I have no turret bonus against artillery and I bet they're immune to lightning turrets. Great!16:18:12What? HRFighters are roaming around RingVI? I didn't see them spawning. Oh, and they're kicking stray SForces' ships.On RingII, the OCStation was quickly busteded by the carriers. The fastest ships of my fleet are already there.

16:20:53Okay, Nomad 1 is fully disconnected from AI territory: I can (re)build it without the protection of a fleet.And while my fleet is near RingI, I'll send it after the ZPGen. 7 minutes before the CPA!

16:28:01Wohoo! Living fire all over the place! Big wave here, captures there, CPA everywhere!Ahem. Sorry.Rounded up: 2,500 MkII ships freed for CPA, +330 from SReserve. One 320 ships carrier on RingII, one 650 ships carrier on RingI (in the middle of nowhere... well, on top of the last AI-controlled ZPGen, but it should be a coincidence), aaand... that's it. The rest is invisible.Ow, rude: the wave on my Ring VI ZPGen is retreating!16:29:40The CPA Carrier on RingII thought it would be a good idea to attack now. My turrets' answer: wrong!Oh, and there is one on RingIV that had the same idea. This one seems more successful: tractor turrets cannot stop the overflowing bombers (both regular and ZElec, MkIII).16:31:51Is that a new carrier on the ashes of the RingIV world?While I was neutering the planet just after my new ZPGen on RingI, I decided to gateraid it too.Wow, impressive: the turrets on the busted planet on RingIV (the one that took 2 carriers, I think) finally defeated the AI ships: only Lightning (MkII-III) and Flak (MkV) are remaining.Also, 1,250 ships wave to my RingVI ZPGen. Some ships of mine are already there.16:35:25Ouch! The wave on RingVI was not a joke: a lot of TeleThings and bombers. The tractor turrets were busy; a raid starships destroyed the OCStation; the MkII FField is 40%; some ships escaped. The ZPGen is untouched, however.

16:40:17Turrets MkIV building everywhere, energy is overflowing, threat is high. I guess we survived the most part of this CPA. Well, it was not really dangerous, just wild because my empire is wide.

16:41:11Metal is low. Turrets on Nomad 1 aren't all built. I loaded all I can from my fleet on it (half my whole fleet); when the wormholes changed, some slow frigates were warped to Fire's homeworld instead, which has a gravity reactor (the core GPost version of the BHole machine).Nomad 1 is also connected to Ice's homeworld, which has a core raid engine. (And the fact I loaded my fleet just in time is because I realized it first and reloaded an minute-older save.)Threat backstab on RingIV; my turrets were MkI-II here, and maybe it's because they attacked here rather than elsewhere. Anyway, the turrets seems to be well placed enough to handle the attack. I'll upgrade them latter: I needall the metal I can grab for Nomad 1's turrets (and fortress, one day).16:42:16Ow crap. While I remembered in time the raid engine belongs to Ice (and put my fleet near the OCStation, and not the wormhole), I didn't noticed the CPA's carrier on RingVI, just near the previously SArchive world, with the WJammer (very lightly defended, due to metal shortage and WJammer). My second fleet half is in route, but I doubt the WJammer OCStation will hold more than a handful of seconds.16:42:42Nomad 1 is safe, despite the pair of beam starships (MkV). I gathered some MkIV ships; I hope they'll replace the loses, somehow, before my WGates get some serious reinforcements. (I'm speaking like an IA, lol.)However Fire sent a 1,750 ships (regular) wave against a backyard world (barely no turrets) on RingIV. However, I can see no WRelay in range. A warpgate guardian, maybe? But I can't see it... I hope my half-fleet will handle the threat attack on RingVI fast enough to get there in time.16:44:24Nope. The battle on RingVI is lost. My metal can't keep up. All I have is a handful of MkI-IV firgates and full caps of MkIII-IV of missile turrets against 1,750 ships.The raid engine will strike again and will be tanked if it doesn't strike harder than before. However, everywhere else, the pressure is too high. Too much threat (CPA wasn't over at all), regular waves are too bigs and I have too much territory to cover.I feel like it's a defeat.

Closing Words

I'll certainly write a post-mortem message (I'll edit the first post); I don't know when exactly. But for a short ending note: I'm far from comfortable on "high" (and it's not that high) AIP. Maybe the game pushed me a bit too much out of my tracks. Anyway, the Fire/Ice setup was great (for the first time I felt like fighting two AI, and not one with two homeworlds), the concentric wasn't new for me but I handled it poorly (very bad idea to go deep empire), using stealth ships was interesting but I think stealth could be a much more interesting (and useful) mechanism in human hands (for IA it's okay). The knowledge saving achievement, while interesting on the paper, wasn't fun to play: if the game gives you Knowledge for AIP, it's because you'll need Knowledge to tank AIP; trying to ignore this core, balanced rule is just a bad idea.Anyway, I said I'll write it later.

No news from Red.Queen; I hope he/she is still alive, somewhere in this galaxy or another.